Blue Notes: The Carolina Hurricanes visit Scottrade Center for the first time since Oct. 21, 2011. The Blues won that meeting 3-2 and are 3-1-1 in their last five games against Carolina. Brian Elliott is expected to start in goal. Alexander Steen leads the League in goals (16) and has points in 12 consecutive games. With a win, Ken Hitchcock would pass Jacques Lemaire for ninth on the NHL's all-time wins list. Against teams from the Eastern Conference, the Blues are 5-1-0 this season and 29-8-5 since 2010-11, which is the best in the League in that span. The Blues are off to a 12-2-3 start, which is their best start in the first 17 games of a season in NHL history.

Season series: This is the first of two meetings between the Carolina Hurricanes and St. Louis Blues. In their most recent matchup, Cam Ward stopped all 40 shots he faced for his 200th NHL victory as the Hurricanes won 2-0 in Raleigh on March 15, 2012.

Big story: Blues wing Alexander Steen scored eight goals in 40 games during the abbreviated 2012-13 season. He had 15 goals in 43 games the season before that.

Seventeen games into the 2013-14 season, Steen has an NHL-leading 16 goals after scoring twice Thursday. He's eight away from matching his career high set in 68 games during the 2009-10 season, and he carries a 12-game point streak (12 goals, four assists) into Saturday.

Team Scope:

Hurricanes: Carolina finished a five-game homestand Friday, with the final three coming against tough Western Conference competition in the Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks. The Hurricanes went 2-0-1 during that stretch and now face another challenge as they visit the Blues, who are 8-1-2 at Scottrade Center.

Justin Peters has appeared in 10 straight games and started nine in a row, going 4-0-1 in his past five. Peters came up huge in a 3-2 shootout win against the Ducks on Friday, stopping 30 shots through 65 minutes and denying two of three attempts in the penalty-shot tiebreaker. Riley Nash and Chris Terry had shootout goals to lift the Hurricanes.

"I've known [Peters] for a long time and he's the hardest-working guy I've seen," Terry said. "I've seen him excel in Charlotte and win us games down there. I know it's in him. It's great to see his work ethic is paying off and he's playing tremendous up here."

Blues: In danger of going consecutive games without picking up a point for the first time this season, St. Louis showed off the NHL's third-ranked offense in a 7-3 thumping of Colorado on Thursday.

"We were able to roll four lines, four lines that were willing to play hard on the puck and win battles along the walls and just kind of keep them [in] it, and getting into the O-zone and let some skill interchange and shots with traffic at the net," Backes said. "… A good win for our guys, but it's one win out of 17 so far. There's 82 in the year."

Who's hot: Peters has stopped 138 of 144 shots during his five-game run for the Hurricanes, a .958 save percentage. … Steen is as hot as anyone in hockey, while Kevin Shattenkirk has quietly but steadily produced offense from the blue line for the Blues, with one goal and nine assists in his past 10 games.